Natural tinsel

Christmas Day dawned bright and frosty, so as we knew Alex and Ben wouldn't surface for several hours and the small turkey crown didn't need to be put into the oven until after midday, Pete and I had a glorious long walk round Holme Fen NNR. There was still frost in some areas, and seeing the tiny crystals shimmering in the sunlight made me realise how warm it has been up to now, with only a handful of frosty mornings, and none of them very hard.

When we arrived home we had a lovely chat with Chris and Lizzy by Skype. They had enkoyed their Chritsmas Day, snorkelling over a coral-reef teeming with jack-fish and brightly coloured parrot-fish. They're having a quiet day tomorrow, and then will be learning to scuba-dive. Apparently they had an urge to do some structured learning!!

After that it was a quiet and enjoyable Christmas Day - too much food and drink, plenty of presents including a large stack of new books, games of Bananagram, Doctor Who and an MR James ghost story on television. I must admit that I'm already yearning for simple vegetable soups and salads - I must be getting too old for overindulgence!!